


Red Sky At Night

by Jaune_Violet



Series: Riverdale Drabbles [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-04
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-14 19:23:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10542957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaune_Violet/pseuds/Jaune_Violet
Summary: Archie Andrews needs to learn to go after what he wants. And how to rebuild a friendship. And how to recover. And how to come out. And how to not internalise shit.Get your shit together.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at 3am last night. Checked it for spelling mistakes, but let me know if there's something wrong!

He walks into the diner, sees Jughead out of the corner of his eye, and drops into the seat in front of him. He hears, but doesn't register the statement he makes until late at night, thinking over the day and wondering, wishing  _hoping_  that was there any other way it could have gone?

He sees him sitting in the steps in front of his house, and thinks "Oh."

But it doesn't go anywhere, not really.

So he ignores the tightness in his chest when they see each other around, and kisses pretty girls, and tries to ignore the feeling of 'wrongwrongwrong' he gets as he runs his fingers through their hair. He has to force himself not to try kissing one of them, as that can only end in disaster, and pointedly ignores the idea of kissing  _him_  with all his might.

It becomes a sort of game, how far can he push this away and repress it before something gives. Not a fun game, but a necessary one, unless he wants to ruin everything he's built with his friends, over and over and over again until the routine is almost second nature.

It doesn't happen suddenly, but things become much more obvious the longer the four of them hang out together. Flickering glances, twisted smiles whenever the other mentions a date, shared milkshakes "Because it's cheaper Juggie, there's nothing else too it!” How the two of them leave him and Jughead in the dust more often then not, sharing food, and-

-That feeling of tightness? It becomes harder to ignore once his best friends start dating.

It comes as a shock to him and apparently to no one else. Jughead teases him about being oblivious as Betty and Veronica make eyes at each other from the booth behind him. There is a noticeable tightness to his smile though, and his conversation with Archie feels awful and stilted. He's happy for them, but it makes him and Jughead even more awkward than they already were; two hangers on in a relationship not meant for four.

He kind of hates them, the two girls so wrapped up in each other and their happiness that they can't see the stragglers they keep forcing to interact, but then again he supposes that this is what Betty felt like, ignored by an idyllic crush, before finding her ever after in her rival’s smile. He doesn't hate them for what they've found, what he knows he will never find in this small town with its whispered secrets, people hissing rumours behind locked doors, trading secrets with glances and stares. This is what he now understands she deserves, what they both deserve for dealing with the fallout of his problems. Besides, a happy healthy stable relationship would do this town good.

It all changes very slowly, but suddenly everything happens at once.

Someone calls Betty a dyke in the hallway, and suddenly Veronica’s right in their face, all tempered steel and deathly chills. The person retracts their statement almost immediately, but the damage has been done, and Betty looks apprehensive and scared for the rest of the day. Veronica’s seething, and hasn’t calmed down even after sharing a milkshake with Betty in the safety of Pop’s. Jughead even offers them both some fries, it’s that bad. She tries to bribe Jughead to write something bad in the paper, and Archie finds it endearing in a way that he knows he wouldn’t have two months ago

Betty knows, she's always known, and it terrifies him that he could be so obvious when all he's done is try to keep things secret. She makes him talk to Kevin, open up about how he feels and though Kevin has very few ideas about how to deal with the fallout of a football player coming out, he can say for sure that there will be a time and place to come out, and so soon after a murder is definitely not the right time. 

Archie doesn’t feel ready for coming out, not with the way people are treating B + V, not with the way they treat Cheryl, Queen Bee of the school. If it’s happening to her, he can't imagine how they’ll treat him. He explains this to the therapist he sees every week, yet another remnant of how bad this town is underneath the surface. They point out the fact that he doesn’t need to come out, and it should make him feel better but it doesn’t. he doesn’t feel that they’ve got what he’s trying to say, and leaves the office feeling unsatisfied.

 

**Author's Note:**

> might finish this later


End file.
